Off the Trailer

[Art Haberland]

Not only does Spark, my GP14 need a bit of work, but her trailer needs quite a bit of rebuilding. To do this, I needed to get the boat off of the trailer. If I had her at home, I could have just dumped her onto the grass in the side yard, but as I have her in a storage unit, I needed to be more neat and less destructive.

So I built up a nice stand for her to sit on, all made up of 2x4s, screwed together and cut to fit. Spark is not a big or heavy boat, so it is almost overkill.



Most of the bottom work to be done is simple scraping and painting. I am not going to refit Spark this year until after the Small Craft Festival in St. Michaels this fall.



It's been a while since her bottom was cleaned. You can see where the bunk boards were:



The trailer.. needs help. The lights do not work, it is more rust than paint, and much of it is loose. The support for the winch easily rotates on the central spine and one of the keel rollers is actually hanging beneath the trailer as it too has slipped. I need to rebuild and add support to the central "box" for the axleless suspension.

I also need to make it about 2 feet longer. As my Rover has a "door" instead of a hatch, I can't open it when the trailer is attached. This is also help by adding some tongue weight to make it more stable.

And I have to say I was surprised how little it weighs.



Upside down keel roller:



Bow supports:



Temporary wiring for the magnetic lights.

[lustyslogger]

And I thought my trailer was merely a figment of my imagination and was really just a rust pile. You have me beat my friend!!!!

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Two years ago I stripped and completely rewired my 1986 trailer with new submersible LED lights.

What a difference!

Some years back (1990ish) we had a 1964 Thistle 17 that was on a 1951 Springfield trailer. The trailer looked like the landing gear from a WWII flying boat! I've never seen another one like it. "Z" cantilevered brackets on either wheel instead of an axle, with coil springs on struts. But it took odd sized tapered bearings that would have cost as much as a more recent used trailer. Now with the Interweb I probably could have hunted up bearings for it. I wish I had hung onto it just for the conversational value.

[Art Haberland]

few more pics.. Trailer is not in a bad a shape as I had feared. Only broke one bolt in getting this far.. and that was an Eyebolt somebody added to the fender.

[lustyslogger]

Charlie
No offense but that thing looks positively Medieval

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springald

[Art Haberland]

Thought I would give everyone a taste of what I had in mind for the trailer. With my work schedule this week, I won't get much done, but I am going to try.

As I have an English boat and I am towing it with an English truck, I decided to make the trailer look very much the part. I am having a new box section made up to support an axle-less suspension that allows me to run 4 on 4 hubs which means I can run 13" rims from an MG Midget instead of the tiny 8" ones that are on there

The fenders, will be 'glass and are reproductions from the Lotus 7 "cycle fenders" and the lights will be from the MGA like so:

Excuse the blue painter's tape, I am still mocking things up and figuring out where they are going to go exactly.







I will have some space to fill in with a fabricated plinth





and there you go! These fenders will be fully removable before dunking so as not to ruin the lights.

[Art Haberland]

Busy bee as spring finally arrives to my little corner of the world. It's still not "Warm" but it's not cold either. Sweater weather if you must go outside.

Inside, I have been working on the mounts to place the flat backsof my lights to the curved surfaces of the Trailer Fenders. Nothing some Balsa, epoxy, cardboard, and lot of sanding and filler can't take care of. For now though, they are very rough.

I started with cutting the first layer slightly larger than the rubber gasket of the light itself. I need to make these slightly flared if they are too look good against the fender. Subsequent layers will slightly larger still, but the bottom two will only be quarter size to cut down on sanding and shaping.





I may need to add a 5th layer at the extreme top and bottom, time will tell once I get them set against the fender.



A little rough looking yet, but that is how things have to start. Sanding, filling, and 'glassing will take care of that.

While these were drying. I started on the mounts for the Amber "beehive" turn signals. These are reproductions for the MGA and Austin Healy Bugeye Sprite, so they need round mounts. Thankfully I had a cardboard shipping tube laying about that was the perfect size.



A little epoxy and some round balsa circles and I have rough mounts.

[lustyslogger]

That truly will be a work of Art (pardon the pun, I just couldn't resist).

I don't have that much energy to do something like this. I will keep my trailer in its natural state until the rust monster finally eats it!

Your trailer will be the envy of the marina when you finish.

[Art Haberland]

just a little teaser. This is a Reproduction of a Vintage Lucas beehive Taillight used on many motorcycles back in the 60s and 70s. I am going to be using it as a "third brake light" right under Spark's stern.

[lustyslogger]

I had one of those on my 1959 BSA Super Rocket. I had restored the bike from being a "chopper" and sourced that tail light.

You really do good work. I am going to as my wife says "play on my boat". I have some trim work to refinish and do a general clean up. Right now the boat is almost 600 miles away from me in Tavares Florida. In June we are moving back so maybe I will get more sailing time in.